Josh Allen puts recent past aside and struggles in Houston as Bills prepare to open season at Texans

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Josh Allen instinctively flexed his right arm — the one he hurt in a game at Houston in 2018 — when reminded of the many struggles he’s experienced in having lost all four trips to play the Texans.

It’s where Allen sprained his throwing elbow a month into his rookie season — the only time he’s ever been sidelined. Houston was the site of Allen losing his playoff debut in overtime, no less, a year later. And it’s where Allen, in 2024, completed 9 of 30 attempts for a 30% completion rate that stands as the lowest of his career.

None of that mattered on Wednesday, as Allen and the new-look Bills prepare to open their season at Houston on Sunday.

“Obviously, I wanna go out there, I want to play the best that I can play and want to help our team win a football game,” Allen said. “If that’s me completing 30 balls or handing it off 40 times, whatever it takes for us to win this game is what I’m willing to do.”

New season, familiar Allen, who enters his ninth NFL year putting aside the past with a bounce in his step and beaming smile. This, after all, is someone who’s emerged as one of the league’s elites while never losing sight of how far he’s come.

“I get to live my dream each and every day, be a quarterback in the NFL. And that’s something to smile about,” Allen said, before noting how he never received a Division I scholarship coming out of high school before finally landing in Wyoming. “Given where I’m from, given my journey, I still feel like I’m improving each and every day too and that’s the fun part about it.”

At 30, Allen has accumulated a few more chips on his shoulder with the latest coming in January. That’s when the quarterback broke down in tears after his four turnovers contributed to Buffalo’s 33-30 overtime playoff loss at Denver.

It was an outcome that led to owner Terry Pegula firing coach Sean McDermott and eventually promoting Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady to take over.

Difficult as it was for Allen to lose McDermott, the only head coach of his NFL career, he embraced Brady, with whom he’s worked with in Buffalo since 2022.

Brady represents continuity for an offense that returns mostly intact, and includes James Cook, the NFL’s rushing leader last season. And then there’s the addition of receiver DJ Moore, who has shown the potential of adding a big-play dimension the passing attack has lacked for much of the past two years.

Opening against the Texans still presents a challenge for Allen and a Bills team opening a new season with Super Bowl aspirations.

In his four losses at Houston, Buffalo has scored no more than 20 points, while Allen has gone a combined 67 of 127 for 722 yards with one TD passing, another receiving, two interceptions and a lost fumble.

“I think now going into my ninth year, understanding that every year is different, every game is different, and it’s how we execute on Sunday,” he said.

Brady has been around Allen long enough to appreciate the player’s makeup and poise in the face of high expectations.

“Right, wrong or indifferent, he has the weight of this city on his shoulders, but he doesn’t treat it any differently,” Brady said.

“And I don’t think there would be anybody we’d want to represent this city more than him with how he handles that,” he added. “He gives everything to this city, to this team, to this organization. And that’s why we all want him to get what he deserves.”

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